This invention in its various forms is directed to the field of pumps, engines and electrical generators. This invention can be implemented for making of various kinds of engines, namely, Stirling, external combustion, internal combustion, and free-piston engines. This invention can also be implemented in electrically driven pumps and compressors.
At present the most common engine is an internal-combustion engine. Research is being done in the field of free-piston engines (U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,519). Current free-piston engines are reciprocating type with a linear alternator integrated with the piston or pistons. Linear alternators are heavier than their rotary counterparts. Scavenging of the burnt fuel is also a problem. Additional mechanical or electromagnetically operated valves have to be used in order to obtain sure scavenging and intake in free-piston linear alternators. Linear free-piston engines are unable to produce mechanical energy in rotary form without the use of a gear-based conversion mechanism. Efforts have been made to augment or actuate reciprocating internal combustion engines by using solenoid-type electromagnets; U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,428 discloses electromagnetic reciprocating engine augmentation, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,174 discloses an electromagnetic engine with rotating rectilinear cylinders and reciprocating pistons. Patents RU 2235404, CN 1369951 and CN 1457134 also use solenoid-type electromagnetics to augment and/or run reciprocating cylindrical internal combustion engines.
All the present-day toroidal engines struggle to optimize factors like valve operation, mechanical power extraction and leakage. Free piston engines can easily be made multi-fuel operated. However, due to fixed valve positioning, no toroidal engine of prior art can work as a free-piston engine. Some efforts have been made to use windings or magnets to harness power from a toroidal engine, U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,591 and abandoned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/244,483. The engine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,591 is a Rankine-cycle engine or a pump with magnets in the lone piston without explaining sufficiently the placement of windings external to the toroidal cylinder; the toroidal cylinder in this disclosure has a piston-operated radial partition valve inside the cylinder. This engine cannot achieve internal compression of fuel-air mixture. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/244,483 from its title, ‘Magnetically coupled, sealed chamber toroidal combustion and steam engine,’ reads like having come close to being a simple, ideal engine with very little leakage; but the application seems not to have solved the problems with sufficient clarity.
Prior efforts at devising, either a pump, compressor or an engine using electromagnetic driving techniques made more use of mechanical steps rather than utilizing miniature electronics. For hydraulic circuits and domestic refrigerators, there is an acute need for efficient, high-performance, sealed pumps and compressors. A summary of problems associated with existing engines, pumps and compressors are as follows:    1. Cycles wasted in reciprocating rotary internal combustion engines for exhaust and intake.    2. Excessive lubrication required for cranking and valve structures in reciprocating rotary internal combustion engines.    3. Difficulty in implementing free-piston operation in reciprocating rotary internal combustion engines.    4. Inherently unidirectional rotation in reciprocating rotary internal combustion engines.    5. Increased complexities of valve actuation mechanisms for optimum performance of an internal combustion engine.    6. Incomplete scavenging of exhaust gases in reciprocating internal combustion engines, due to the fact that the piston does not move beyond TDC position. This also results in uneven wear of the cylinder inner surface.    7. Use of a compressor for charging a two-stroke diesel engine increases complexity and lowers the efficiency of the engine.    8. Inability to effect compression of air-fuel mixture in a ratchet-less toroidal rotary engine with non-reciprocating piston or pistons.    9. The separation in the drive motor and the pump or compressor leading to the size and weight of such assemblies finding application in pneumatics, hydraulics and refrigeration.